If you’re looking for a way to increase lift and body in fine, thinning, or fragile hair, Ginger & Maude Hair Salon’s Education Director, Nicki, has got you covered. She’s taking us step-by-step through the volume-boosting routine she uses on her own hair at home.

You’ll need:
-Hairdryer
-Paddle brush for general drying
-Round brush for volume at the top
-Two clips
-KEVIN.MURPHY STAYING.ALIVE: Helps to close the hair cuticle, great especially for fine hair that is also damaged or compromised.
-KEVIN.MURPHY FULL.AGAIN: This, along with STAYING.ALIVE, is designed to thicken hair, rather than volumizing. What they are doing is swelling the hair strand, whereas volumizing products are going to flick open the hair cuticle, something you don’t necessarily want to do if your hair is fragile.
-KEVIN.MURPHY HEATED.DEFENSE: Your heat insurance. Helps seal everything down to provide heat protection and prevent damage. It’s also going to fill in all the little crevices in your hair where you might have some damage, so it helps give guts to your hair as well, which is nice.
-KEVIN.MURPHY DOO.OVER: Also part of the thickening product line, this is dry shampoo and hairspray in one. Great for adding fullness.


How to do it:

Applying product:

  1. Spray STAYING.ALIVE all over towel-dried hair, let it sit for a few seconds, and brush it through with your paddle brush.
  2. Separate hair into your top section and sides by brushing the hair directly above your forehead back and the hair at the corners of your hairline down toward your shoulders.
  3. Squeeze about a quarter-sized amount of FULL.AGAIN into your hand and emulsify it. This is a lotion, and for fine and thin hair, lotion sounds scary, but it’s only going on your mids and ends, so it will stay off your root. Gently rake it through your sides section, then through your top section, raking it over to the left and then the right.
  4. Pump out HEATED.DEFENSE into hand (don’t be shy about the pumps—Nicki did five), rub it between your hands, and comb all throughout your hair.
  5. Give hair a final brush through and re-part it into the top and sides.

Blow-drying the sides:

  1. Separate the top section of hair into a front half and back (the back section should end just at your crown), and secure each half with a clip. These are going to be the focus points for creating volume that comes up and over.
  2. Set your blow-dryer to full volume and medium heat, and begin drying the hair in your sides section, staying pretty close to the root and using the paddle brush to brush through. Using your fingers here is fine as well and can create more fullness.
  3. Once your hair is a bit dry, you can begin creating lift by scooping your paddle brush up and out against the underside of your hair while blow-drying.
  4. Once everything feels pretty dry, take your paddle brush through it once more using the same up-and-out scooping motion.

Blow-drying top half, back section:

  1. Start by holding the section out and blow-drying it. No brush needed here, instead, focus on getting it mostly dry and using a lot of forward movement by aiming the hairdryer at the back of the section to help create volume.
  2. Brush through with your round brush a few times to remove knots, then place it right at the base letting your hair fall back over it.
  3. Slowly begin brushing your hair up while following along with your hairdryer (avoid directly touching your hair with the dryer). Repeat this step several times.
  4. To prevent extra flyaways, repeat the motion of step 3 a few times while holding the brush on the front side of the section.
  5. Return to step 3 and repeat until your roots are fully dry.
  6. Take a break if you need to. You’re working hard and blow-drying gets hot.
  7. Once your roots are dry, focus on drying the ends by rolling the brush up and down them while blow-drying.
  8. When they’re dry, roll hair all the way around the brush down to the root and let it sit for a minute—when your hair is hot, the cuticle is open, and we want to give it time to cool and close again so our style will stay.
  9. Slowly roll the hair out, letting it fall down the back of your head.

Blow-drying top half, front section:

  1. Again, start by focusing on getting the hair mostly dry. You can start by using the round brush here, or you can sub in the paddle brush to give your hand a break.
  2. Position the brush at the base of the hair and bring the hair slightly forward as you blow-dry.
  3. After a few passes, repeat the movement, bringing the hair slightly back.
  4. With the round brush, alternate steps 3 and 4 from the back section until your roots are dry.
  5. Repeat step 7 from the back section to dry ends. 
  6. Repeat step 8 from the back section to cool your hair. If the top of the brush feels hot on your fingertips, you know your hair is still pretty hot too.
  7. Repeat step 9.
  8. Spray hair all over with DOO.OVER and gently start raking through.
  9. Part hair as desired, staying gentle with your movements. Your hair is still going to be pretty warm, so you don’t want to add a ton of pressure and have anything fall.
  10. For curtain bangs, you can gently hold on to the ends and push them forward to create an S shape, then gently push forward closer to the root with your palm to zhuzh it up.

Enjoy your volume! You’ve totally got this.

And if you want the volume but hate blow-drying your own hair, why not treat yourself? Schedule a Shampoo & Blow-dry service at any of our locations through the links below, or by calling/texting 971.267.4080 for the Portland salons and 971.474.9531 for the Ginger & Maude Hair Salon in Tigard.

SCHEDULE IN PORTLAND SCHEDULE IN TIGARD